{"id":1424,"date":"2017-12-10T15:23:17","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T20:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/?p=1424"},"modified":"2017-12-10T15:23:17","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T20:23:17","slug":"irish-christmas-in-america-at-the-grand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/2017\/12\/10\/irish-christmas-in-america-at-the-grand\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish Christmas in America at the Grand"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Irish Christmas in America” <\/b>celebrates the holidays in the spirit of Ireland with music, dance, and stories. An all-star cast from across the pond takes the stage at The Grand Opera House in Wilmington on Wednesday, Dec. 13 at 8\u00a0p.m.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Tickets are $26-31, available through the Box Office at 302.652.5577<\/a> or online at www.thegrandwilmington.org<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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\"image-2\"<\/a>Now in its 13th year, the show features lively Irish tunes, thrilling step dance, evocative carols in both English and Irish, and an abundance of humor.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Christmas is a massive holiday in Ireland,” says fiddle player and show producer\u00a0Oisin Mac Diarmada<\/b>. “People travel home to see families and share great food and lots of music. The country shuts down, apart from the bars!”
\nNiamh Farrell is<\/b>\u00a0a rising young singer with a crystal-clear voice who hails from Sligo on Ireland’s West Coast. Farrell brings contemporary songs to the show including Norah Jones’ “December” and Tom Waits’ “Take Me Home.”<\/p>\n

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“Growing up, the idea of a ‘party piece’ was always a big thing in Irish homes,” Farrell says. “People would gather around the fire or maybe the table at Christmas dinner, and everyone would be coaxed to sing a song or tell a story or do a dance. You had to make some sort of show of yourself!”<\/div>\n
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From County Kerry,\u00a0S\u00e9amus Begley<\/b>, named Ireland’s “Traditional Singer of the Year,” sings, tells jokes and plays the accordion.<\/div>\n
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“Seamus was like the Johnny Cash of my childhood,” says Farrell. “I absolutely adored his singing.”<\/div>\n
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Champion step dancer\u00a0Samantha Harvey<\/b>\u00a0lights up the stage with her footwork, and joins in on piano with <\/b>Grainne Hambley\u00a0<\/b>on the harp and\u00a0Se\u00e1n Gavin\u00a0<\/b>on the uilleann\u00a0<\/i>pipes (Irish bagpipes).<\/div>\n
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The show touches a chord with Americans, even those not of Irish descent, as many families can identify with being far from home.<\/p>\n

“One of the most heartfelt themes of Irish Christmas is emigration,” \u00a0says Mac Diarmada. \u00a0“Music was a way that people stayed close to home.”<\/p>\n

Want to conjure memories after the show? An accompanying CD “An Irish Christmas Soundscape<\/a>” <\/b><\/i>will be available at the performance.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Irish Christmas in America” celebrates the holidays in the spirit of Ireland with music, dance, and stories. An all-star cast from across the pond takes the stage at The Grand Opera House in Wilmington on Wednesday, Dec. 13 at 8\u00a0p.m. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33],"tags":[741,706,742,740,743,271],"class_list":["post-1424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-go","tag-america","tag-christmas","tag-grand-opera","tag-irish","tag-niamh-farrell","tag-wilmington"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2zjZK-mY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1424"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1427,"href":"https:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions\/1427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smithreports.com\/eatshopgo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}